Virgil Abloh

VIRGIL AT BROWNS: No stranger to collaborations, Virgil Abloh is joining forces with British retailer Browns for an exclusive men’s and women’s capsule that aims to revisit some of his greatest hits at Off-White. The collection, which will drop in Browns stores and online on Friday, consists of 21 pieces and highlights the brand’s signature mix of street and ready-to-wear.

“The capsule has the essence of Off-White embedded in it. A mix of street and chic sensibilities wrapped up into one expression,” said Abloh, who went on to re-create some of his signatures for Browns, using exclusive prints, new colors and “special fastenings.”

Among the highlights in the collection are a bi-color men’s sweatshirt worn with matching track pants, a women’s pajama-style suit featuring a hand-drawn floral pattern and the brand’s popular flap bag, done in a palette of blues and military greens.

Prices range from 155 pounds to 1,550 pounds.

Ida Petersson, the retailer’s women’s buying director, said that streetwear labels such as Off-White have been pioneering a new business model in the industry that’s heavily based on generating buzz via collaborations and one-off exclusive capsules. Abloh alone has worked on collaborations with everyone from Takashi Murakami and Jimmy Choo to Ikea in the past year. This model is now becoming an essential part of every retailer’s agenda in a bid to keep consumers engaged.

“The whole fashion world is changing and the customer that’s coming out now is a super-savvy young man or woman who doesn’t know any other way to shop. There’s no way they are going to get less intense in their shopping behavior,” said Petersson. “That extra noise, you can only create it [through these collaborations] today. Something that’s exclusive guarantees that it’s exciting enough.”